Childhood & Early Life
Jordan Alexander Spieth was born on July 27, 1993 in Dallas, Texas, to Shawn Spieth and Mary Christine Spieth. Both his parents played basketball in college, and while his father later established a media analytics startup, his mother became a computer engineer.
He has a younger brother named Steven, a basketball player at Brown University, and a younger sister named Ellie, who was born with a genetic disorder. He attended St. Monica Catholic School and Jesuit College Preparatory School, and graduated from the latter in 2011.
As a child, he played soccer, baseball, football and basketball; however, he began focusing on golf at the age of 12. He enrolled into Brookhaven Country Club where he took lessons from former professional golfer Cameron McCormick.
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Amateur Career
Jordan Spieth finished second in Junior PGA Championship in both 2008 and 2009, and was named the 'Rolex Junior Player of the Year' by the American Junior Golf Association in 2009. He won the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship two times, in 2009 and 2011, becoming the second player ever to win multiple Junior titles after Tiger Woods.
He became the first amateur exemption since 1995 to play in the PGA Tour's HP Byron Nelson Championship in 2010 where he not only made the cut, but finished the tournament T16th. He earned himself another exemption at the next year's tournament, in which he tied for 32nd.
While representing the US at the 2011 Walker Cup, playing in three of the four rounds, he won both his singles matches and halved his foursomes match. In his freshman year at the University of Texas, he helped the Texas Longhorns win the 2012 NCAA Team Championship and was named a first-team All-American.
In 2012, after Brandt Snedeker withdrew from the U.S. Open, he bagged a spot as an alternate and finished the tournament tied for the 21st place, becoming the low amateur. His performance in the tournament, coupled with Patrick Cantlay's decision to turn professional, made him the number one amateur in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Professional Career
Turning professional midway through his sophomore year, Jordan Spieth played in his first tournament at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in January 2013. While he missed the cut by two strokes, he later made three cuts at the Puerto Rico Open in March, finishing T2, followed by a T7 finish at the Tampa Bay Championship.
Just before his 20th birthday, he won his first professional tournament, the John Deere Classic, becoming the fourth youngest PGA Tour winner and the youngest in 82 years. During the 2013 season, he finished 7th in the FedEx Cup, became the youngest to play in the Presidents Cup, and was named 'PGA Tour Rookie of the Year'.
On his debut at the Masters in April 2014, he became the youngest runner-up in Masters history and entered the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time. That year, he was the youngest American to play in the Ryder Cup in 85 years, and went on to win the Emirates Australian Open and the Hero World Challenge.
He began the 2015 season winning the Valspar Championship and finished runner-up at the Valero Texas Open in March. He earned his first major victory at the Masters Tournament in April, becoming the second-youngest person to win the event, and also moved to the 2nd place in world rankings.
With his U.S. Open victory in June, he became the youngest to win the event since Bobby Jones in 1923, and the sixth to win the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same year. Later that year, he won the John Deere Classic, finished 4th in The Open Championship and 2nd in the PGA Championship, which made him the world number one golfer.
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Despite not making the cut for the first two events of the FedEx Cup playoffs, he finished 13th at the BMW Championship and won the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club by four strokes. With this win, he won a record single-year PGA Tour prize money of $12,030,485, excluding $10 million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup.
He started the 2016 season with a dominant victory at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, however, he suffered one of the biggest collapses in Masters history to finish the tournament tied for second. He later won the Dean & DeLuca Invitational in May 2016, followed by another win at the Emirates Australian Open on the PGA Tour of Australasia in November.
In 2017, he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Travelers Championship, but finished tied for 11th at the Masters. He bagged his third major title by winning the Open Championship in July that year, followed by second place finishes at the first FedEx Cup Playoff, the Dell Technologies Championship and the Tour Championship.
In February 2018, it was announced that he will become part of the 16-member PGA Tour's Chairman of the Player Advisory Council for a three-year term starting in 2019. However, on the field, he only managed T3 finishes at the Houston Open and at the Masters, despite having lead in the first round of the latter.
Awards & Achievements
Jordan Spieth has won 14 professional tournaments so far, including three major championships, namely the Masters Tournament and the U.S. Open in 2015, and the 2017 Open Championship.
With his exceptional performance in 2015, he swept almost all major honors that year, including 'PGA Player of the Year', 'PGA Tour Player of the Year', 'Vardon Trophy', 'Byron Nelson Award' and 'Arnold Palmer Award'.
Personal Life & Legacy
It was revealed in December 2017 that Jordan Spieth was engaged to his high school sweetheart Annie Verret, who is an event coordinator with the First Tee of Dallas. They live in his $5.9 million mansion in their native Dallas.
Using his younger sister Ellie as an inspiration, he established the Jordan Spieth Family Foundation in 2013. It aims to increase awareness and provide financial assistance to children with special needs, military families and youth golf.
